Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Groceries too Expensive? Grow your Own.

Glenn ordered a book called Edible Landscaping that proclaimed "Now You Can Have Your Gorgeous Garden and Eat It Too!" Since I am in the process of growing tomatoes again in my Earthbox, I thought it couldn't hurt to see what else I might be able to grow in the yard that might be edible. The book shows a number of fruits, vegetables and herbs that can be mixed into your landscaping that provide not only pleasing aesthetics but function as they can be used for food. Given the price of groceries lately, this is a real plus.

The book shows you how to design with herbs, vegetables, fruits, berries, and nuts. One section (page 142) even shows what foods are best for every zone. "Consider your climate before you choose your fruits, berries and nuts." Favorites according to some experts (consulted by the author Rosalind Creasy) included Alpine strawberries, Blueberries, and Chestnuts in the North and Midwest and Asian persimmons, Avocados, Figs and Citrus in the south. For the West, she mentions the site of Dave Wilson who runs a nursery.

Overall, Edible Landscaping is a great book with huge, pretty illustrations and details about how to grow your own edible garden.

If you are growing your own food, what do you find grows best in your area?

Sunday, August 14, 2011

The Raw Food Diet: Is the Cure Worse than the Disease?

This morning, I am reading through a book called The Complete Idiot's Guide to Raw Food Detox. I know, I know, why am I torturing myself with such stuff? I don't know. I find nutrition and the way people think about it interesting.

It does make me wonder what the point of a raw food diet is, however, when I read the section on the "Symptoms of Healing" that are a "cleansing reaction" to a diet of nutrient-dense raw foods. Common cleansing reactions include:

The author describes his reactions to a cleansing spa in Thailand where he was fatigued and ended up with the "shakes." He went to bed early with "a mild fever and chill" that kept him wrapped up in a blanket. He did say that he woke up feeling symptom-free but I am left wondering why substituting these symptoms for the symptoms of a non raw-food diet are any improvement.

It's not a ringing endorsement of the raw-food diet. I have enough trouble without going through all this to "feel better." Anyway, didn't they just find out a lot of this stuff is bunk--kind of like colon cleansing?